Why God Listens To You - Daniel 9:22-23

"Daniel, I have come here to give you insight and understanding. The moment you began praying, a command was given. And now I am here to tell you what it was, for you are very precious to God. Listen carefully so that you can understand the meaning of your vision." In 539 BC Daniel was studying the book of Jeremiah and read where Jeremiah prophesied the desolation of Jerusalem would be for seventy years. Daniel may have calculated from the time of his own deportation in 605 BC that it was near the end of the seventy years. (The first wave of returning exiles actually began in 538 BC and the rebuilding of the Temple began almost immediately upon their arrival in Jerusalem. The returning Jews encountered resistance from the local inhabitants of Jerusalem and so the Temple wasn't completed until 515 BC, about seventy years after it was destroyed!) Then Daniel prays for the Jewish people in exile, confessing their disobedience and rebellion and pleading for their repatriation of Jerusalem and Judea. While Daniel was praying, the angel Gabriel appeared to him and made the declaration in these verses. The command given to which Gabriel refers was either God's decree to end the Exile and return His people to Jerusalem and Judea or the command for Gabriel to go and explain the future to Daniel. Whatever the case, Gabriel affirms that he was sent there in response to Daniel's impassioned prayer. Gabriel explains that Daniel's prayer mattered to God because Daniel was precious to Him. An angelic appearance as a result of Daniel's prayers was repeated in Chapter 10 and in 10:11 and 10:19 an angel again tells Daniel that he was precious to God. Therefore, we know that God pays attention to the sincere prayers of His people. You are precious to God and this is why He listens to what you have to say to Him. "The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results" (James 5:16).